Chicago colleges team up to sponsor entrepreneurs on H-1B visas

As tech employers deal with changes to a visa program for high-skilled workers under the Trump administration, a group of Chicago-area colleges is partnering to establish programs for international entrepreneurs.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Wednesday that five schools — Columbia College, DePaul University, the Illinois Institute of Technology, Loyola University and Northwestern University — will work with the city and sponsor a total of 10 to 20 H-1B visas in the first year of the program.

The slots will be for entrepreneurs whose companies could create at least 150 jobs over three years, the mayor's office said. Because the entrepreneurs will be sponsored by higher education institutions, their applications would likely be exempt from an annual cap on the number of H-1B visas.

"We want entrepreneurs to see Chicago as a place where their ideas their dreams their companies can happen," Emanuel said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. "I believe this initiative … is saying yes to entrepreneurship, yes to talent, yes to diversity and most importantly, yes to the future of the city of Chicago."

Telling the story of how she and Rishi Shah ⇒ started the company, she said there was a time she worried she wouldn't get the H-1B visa she needed to stay and work on the company. In fact, she missed out once.

"The first year, I didn't get the visa. We started making plans for what this meant for our company," she said. "Fortunately, the second time around, I did hit the lottery … but it shouldn’t be that way. It shouldn’t be held to such uncertainty."

The H-1B visa program lets American companies sponsor immigrant workers who are highly specialized in fields including science, engineering and computer programming, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Supporters of the H-1B program say it gives employers access to talent for positions they can't fill with American workers, while opponents say the need is overstated or gives employers a way to avoid hiring Americans.

The H-1B visa program, in particular, is important to tech companies. The visas let American companies sponsor immigrants with "highly specialized knowledge" in fields...

The participating universities will sponsor entrepreneurs through two kinds of affiliations, based on the stage of the company. Those leading early-stage startups will work part-time for the school and work separately on their companies, while those with established companies will make a home base out of their sponsor school and mentor its students.

Application requirements, reviews and admissions decisions will be unique to and independently run by each university.

The mayor's office pointed to a similar program in Massachusetts that started in 2014 and has sponsored 23 entrepreneurs at UMass Boston and UMass Lowell. Their companies have created 416 jobs and raised $185 million in private investment, it said.

Chicago employers sponsored nearly 13,000 H-1B petitions in fiscal year 2017, the fifth-most of any American city.